Friday, November 20, 2009

...let me lay out the scenario for you and we'll see if you can figure out what's wrong:

We're having a yard sale this weekend, both today and tomorrow. Although I had quite a bit of stuff, I asked my family if they wanted to include their stuff. My parents, grandparents and sister-in-law all decided they did. Since we had so many people and so much stuff, we decided to run the sale for two days - today and tomorrow.We agreed to start the sale at 7:00 a.m. both days and go until whenever. Because of various work schedules, only my grandparents were available to help me set up today. (Which isn't a big deal, except for all the heavy stuff - like MM's motorcycle (that he may or may not know I'm selling in the yard sale) - that's a PITA to carry without boys around.) They agreed to come over at 6 to help me set up. I promised coffee in exchange for donuts (fair deal, right?).

So this morning Grandma and Grandpa show up with 2 boxes of donuts (I didn't count how many, but I'd guess probably two dozen) before anyone but TG was up. She had one for breakfast then headed out to school. LM and MM's niece (she comes over in the morning to ride the bus with LM) both had donuts for breakfast, too. So did I.

MM was the last to get up (well, the last to eat breakfast anyway) and I come inside from hawking my wares to find him eating oatmeal. There are two dozen donuts on the table and he's eating oatmeal? But the best part? He was in uniform. Isn't that like..against the law or something (har dee har har)?

Saturday, November 14, 2009

I finally started getting caught up in my Google Reader. For the last month or so I've just been skimming titles and marking all as read. But last week I decided it was time to start returning to the land of the living and I actually starting reading all your posts again.

As many of you will have noticed, I also started commenting again. Since I had, oh, I don't know, about 5000 unread posts, I didn't comment on ALL your posts, just the ones I felt I had something to contribute to. I'm hoping to keep on top of it now that I'm all caught up (and believe me, that was a serious undertaking).

I also decided to start posting at the Mom Blog Casee and I started last year, Not Dead Yet. When I went back to work earlier this year we kind of let it fall to the wayside. Then, with me being sick over the summer and Casee being busy with life, we just let it slide. I'm hoping to start posting on a more regular basis both here and there.

In an effort to get things started, I've already posted a new entry. Go forth and check it out if you're so inclined:

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Before I go forward, I want to say thank you to all of you who've been here to support me and MM. The last couple of months have been kind of crazy, and knowing you all were here really helped. Thank you so much for the comments, emails and cards I received. It really meant the world to me.

Vegas, Baby

October was an interesting month. Looking back, it's hard to believe so much happened such a short time ago. Already it feels like a lifetime ago, not a few short weeks. The weekend of the 24th MM and I went to Vegas for a wedding. We debated about going, but in the end decided we probably needed to get out of town. A change of scenery can work wonders, you know. In the end I'm glad we went, but MM drank a little too much at the reception and we ended up having an..interesting evening. Let's just say I'm not sure we'll be welcome back at Harrah's any time soon.

Halloween

For the last several years we've hosted a Halloween party. When MM was growing up his mom (or maybe grandma, I'm not positive) did "chili night" on Halloween. Basically they had chili going on the stove and throughout the night people would stop in to eat between bouts of trick-or-treating. So we've taken over doing this (his mom and grand parents live several hours away from us). The neighborhood we live in is great for trick-or-treating. One of the main churches in town is right next door to our housing development, so many people come here to trick-or-treat after visiting "harvest night" at the church. Cars line up for blocks.

The first year we did this we used our house as the base for trick-or-treating. I made chili and we invited several of our friends/family members over to join us. We ate, then walked with the kids around the neighborhood. Last year it turned more "party-like". We invited more friends, and though we still used our house as a base and did chili, we also decorated more and put together some games (that we never actually played, now that I think about it). This year we went even farther with the decorations and I made chili and chicken tortilla soup.

The neighborhood kids were really impressed with the house. MM really gets into it and goes all out. We even replaced our interior lights with black and red bulbs, so the inside looked just as creepy as the outside. Some kids were afraid to come to the door. Heh.

It looks like this has become a yearly tradition. I don't know how much fun other people have when they come, but we enjoy hosting it and we'll probably keep doing it as long as we have friends with kids who want to trick-or-treat (or have kids ourselves who want to).

Physical Recovery

Last week I had my post-op checkup. Maybe someday when I'm bored - or in the mood - I'll tell you all about my experiences with my crappy OBGYN. For now I'll just say I'm glad last Monday was the last time I have to see them. Normally after childbirth you have to wait 6 weeks for your checkup, but in my case - I guess because I wasn't very far along - I only had to wait 2-3 weeks. I saw the doctor and everything is fine, so I'm cleared for normal activity.

To be honest I was completely relieved. Now that I don't feel sick anymore, I've been anxious to get my life back in order. I haven't really cleaned my house in about 5 months. The kids and MM tried to help, but well...it's the kids and MM. I'm sure you can imagine the size of the dust bunnies threatening to take over our house. I've been wanting to dive in and get things organized, but I was restricted from doing a lot of things - like lifting heavy stuff and vacuuming.

I was also ready to get back into a regular exercise routine. Doing nothing but throwing up for 5 months really took a lot out of me. I'm anxious to get back into shape. I picked up the Wii Fit Plus the other day, and I started it yesterday morning. I'm the type of person who gets bored easily. Several months before I got pregnant I got bored with the Wii Fit. I'd already mastered all the balance games, and doing the same old exercises time and again just wasn't fun.

The thought of getting back into the Wii Fit didn't hold much appeal, but I figured with the Fit Plus I might be more inclined. So far it seems to be working. Some of the new Training Plus exercises they came up with are awesome (I say some because I've only tired a few up to this point). I can't wait to get back into a solid workout routine. Not only do I want to get rid of the excess weight, but I'd like to get my strength back, too.

I'm also thinking about getting back on the treadmill. I don't want to overwhelm myself right off the bat, but I think I'll probably add in some treadmill time starting next week. I figure I'll start off slow and work my way up.

Emotional Recovery

I'm doing surprisingly well emotionally. As I mentioned above, losing Baby Peanut seems like something that happened a long time ago. There are odd moments when it'll hit me hard, but mostly I'm just ready to move forward. I think MM and I were able to make peace with things in the hospital for the most part. Since our doctor was so good to us and we knew ahead of time what was going to happen, the blow wasn't as sharp as it could have been.

Sometimes I wonder if there's something wrong with me because I'm not completely grief stricken. I'm still sorry, very sorry, that things didn't work out. But mostly I'm just...well, ok, really.

I forget that this isn't old news for some. Just today I saw a friend had left a note on my mom's Facebook page asking when I was due. I didn't really know what to say. I'm comfortable talking about it, but I don't always know how other people will react.

Surprisingly, the one who's taken it the hardest is The Girl. MM and I were talking about Baby Peanut at the dinner table the other night and she got very upset. She finally asked us to please stop talking about it. Although I knew she and Little Man were sad, I didn't realize it had touched her so deeply.

I do want to take a minute to wallow in self-pity though. I just want to say it sucks big fat hairy donkey balls that I had to go through what I did but didn't get the payoff for it. 5 months of non-stop puking, excess weight gain and swelling, labor and delivery and for what? I told MM, normally you know you're doing it because the payoff will be huge. It sucks wind that there was no payoff for me.

/pity party

The Future

People keep asking if MM and I plan to try again. At some point I think we probably will, but neither of us is in a giant hurry. MM keeps saying maybe sometime next year, but we'll just have to play it by ear and see what happens. I'm certainly not in any hurry to start throwing up again any time soon, that's for sure.

In the meantime, I'll try to start blogging again on a more regular basis, but I'm not making any promises. Sometimes I just don't have anything to say. Other times I have plenty to say but no gumption to actually type it out.

If you're interested, you can find me on Facebook, or Twitter, or at Book Binge. I tend to spend the better part of my days hanging out in those places (stupid time-sucks!).